Moral Rights 2.0

In recent years, commentators have developed a renewed interest in moral rights. Although there remain significant differences between U.S. and European copyright laws, these differences are unlikely to present significant challenges to the future development of moral rights. Instead, challenges are likely to come from the changing socio-technological environment, due in no small part to the internet and the arrival of new media technologies.In the digital age, the protection of moral rights has raised four new sets of questions: (1) Are moral rights becoming obsolete? (2) Can the protection of these rights meet the demands of a growing semiotic democracy? (3) Would such protection threaten the development of a participatory democratic culture in countries with heavy information control? (4) Should moral rights be extended to cover a new ‘right to delete’ in the digital environment? This short essay examines each of these questions